Didcot mechanic Dan Rivers wins rifle three positions, to follow his 10-metre
air rifle bronze last Friday, as he targets Rio Olympics

Mechanic by day, gunslinger by night, Dan Rivers can now return to the garage as a Commonwealth Games champion.

Preoccupied by a world of catalytic converters and fuel pressure regulators, Rivers had been quietly nurturing a passion for shooting in his spare time.

Fitting 15 hours of training each week around a full-time job and funding all of his own competitions, the Didcot mechanic had made plenty of sacrifices for his shooting career. However, he never expected to win. Not yet, anyway.

Introduced to target shooting by his grandfather on a trip to the fairground aged 13, Rivers saw it as a hobby in his early years – something to do for a bit of fun.

Then he was selected as part of the Olympic Ambition programme and given the opportunity to watch London 2012 up close.

From that moment he wanted to line up at the Rio Olympics. The Commonwealth Games was only meant to be a stepping-stone to achieving that.

However, after claiming a surprise gold medal in the rifle three positions on Tuesday, to follow his 10-metre air rifle bronze on Friday, Rivers, 23, may now head to Brazil in 2016 as a marked man.

“I didn’t think it could get much better than the bronze, but it has,” he said. “It’s an amazing feeling. I felt really prepared going into this.

“The air rifle was a surprise, but this is my strongest event. I had it in hand, I knew what I was doing and I took my chance with both hands.” Rivers’s moment of glory meant that England enjoyed double success at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre.

David Luckman earlier claimed his second gold medal of the Games in the full-bore rifle Queen’s Prize individual event. His prize? To be carried in a chair.

The 38-year-old, competing at his first Commonwealth Games, had already won the pairs title last week and doubled his tally in the gruelling three-day long-range discipline with a record score of 401-42.

In one of the more bizarre sporting sights, and in accordance with the tradition of the annual event which dates back to 1860, Luckman was then carried in a sedan chair to the medal ceremony by his opponents, including England’s bronze medal-winning Parag Patel.

The Bristol shooter said: “That was as special as it gets. I’ve been looking to do this for a very, very long time.”

There was plenty of other Home Nations success on the final day of shooting action, with England’s Aaron Heading winning silver in the men’s trap, Jen McIntosh claiming silver for Scotland in the rifle three positions, and England’s Kristian Callaghan taking bronze in the 25-metre rapid- fire pistol.